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Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia,
Lawyer’s Committee for Human Rights- YUCOM, Humanitarian Law Centre,
Forum for Ethnic Relations and Public Policy Research Centre held
the first press-conference on the establishment of the Coordination
Group of Civil Society Organizations (CSO) for monitoring of
Serbia’s chairmanship of the OSCE and its obligations arising from
the organization’s human dimension.
Every key document of the OSCE, from the Helsinki
Act of 1975, highlights the respect of human rights and freedoms as
a precondition for peace and stability. Societies founded on the
principles of pluralism, democracy and the rule of law guarantee
security, justice and cooperation between member-states. The
Maastricht document of 2003 that lays down the strategy of the OSCE
for the 21st century stresses that the respect for human rights and
fundamental freedoms, democracy and the rule of law are crucial for
the all-inclusive concept of security. Founded on the same premises,
the CSO coalition will above all monitor the present, worrisome
situation of human rights in Serbia.
The Coalition will be focused on reporting on
Serbia’s fulfillment of OSCE commitments, recommending promotion of
these commitments, , opening public dialogue on major issues at
domestic and regional level and in various forums, and on
preparations for a parallel civil society conference to be held in
Belgrade in December 2015 on the eve of the OSCE ministerial
meeting.
The Coalition is in communication with the working
group for the Chairmanship of the OSCE within the Serbian Ministry
of Foreign Affairs. Furthermore, it has established good cooperation
with the OSCE missions in Belgrade and Vienna, as well as with the
international CSO network, the Civic Solidarity Platform, as its
main partner in this process.
The Coalition will participate in the
self-evaluation process on the fulfillment of the country’s
commitments in the human dimension area, which is currently being
prepared by the Serbian OSCE Chairmanship. The idea of
self-evaluation came forth from the conclusion that OSCE
Chairmanship should establish very high standards for other OSCE
member-states in respect for human rights. The first country to do
so was Switzerland during its OSCE Chairmanship in 2014 as a result
of its cooperation with the Civic Solidarity Platform.
It is very important that Serbia accepted the
process of self-evaluation. The report will be written by the
Equality Protection Commissioner and the Institute of Social
Sciences, and will focus on four topics: gender equality, Roma
community, elections and freedom of peaceful assembly. The CSO
Coalition will give its inputs to this report and write about three
additional topics perceived as civil society priorities: media
freedoms, protection of human rights and minorities. These will not
be the Coalitions’ sole concerns considering its plan to organize a
regional conference on reconciliation.
Izabela Kisić of the Helsinki Committee for Human
Rights in Serbia, who will scrutinize media freedoms and freedom of
expression, said that the Coalition will carefully monitor the human
rights situation and basic freedoms in Serbia. This is of high
importance since human rights have been seriously challenged in
Serbia during the past year. Apart from human rights organizations,
reports from independent institutions draw attention to this
particular trend and the threat to basic freedoms in Serbia. The
Citizens Ombudsman’s well-documented report for the year 2014
alerting of the threats to human rights and pressing problems was
most inappropriately commented upon by the government, whereas MPs
from the ruling party called it a political pamphlet.
The Coalition will also point to violations of the
freedom of expression, which it considers one of the main problems
in Serbia. In this context, Kisić reminded of recent dismissals of
actors (of the theater in Zaječar) for having participated in an
opposition rally, as well as of disruption of a public debate
organized by opposition parties. She also noted that violation of
media freedoms and freedom of expression reached a critical point in
the past year. Looking back on the recent meeting of the OSCE in
Belgrade, which was the first discussion of Serbian OSCE
Chairmanship in the human dimension area, she drew attention to the
serious message that OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media
Dunja Mijatović put across on the occasion: freedom of expression
and media freedoms are closely connected with the elections that
will be held no later than March 2016, she said.
Svetlana Đurđević-Lukić of the Public Policy
Research Centre, who, in the context of the monitoring, will be
addressing the situation of the Roma and partly the freedom of
expression, highlighted that the civil society should not remain on
the margins of many activities undertaken within the current Serbian
OSCE Chairmanship. She noted that many took advantage of the
International Roma Day – 8th of April- to showcase their commitment
to the protection of Roma community, which nevertheless remained the
most vulnerable community in Serbia. Particularly violated are the
rights of multiply marginalized groups, such as Roma women. She also
stressed the importance of addressing the freedom of expression
beyond media freedoms, since freedom of expression can be violated
in many different ways in the public sphere. Priority for the
citizens is to enjoy the right to information as a public good.
Nenad Đurđević of the Forum for Ethnic Relations,
who will be focusing on the evaluation of the situation of national
minorities and minority policies, said that some progress has been
made in this area since 2000. . He also noted a very important role
of OSCE in overcoming the crisis in the South of Serbia in 2001, as
well as the importance of OSCE High Commissioner on National
Minorities whose expertise and professionalism had never been
questioned in Serbia. Đurđević mentioned pressing problems facing
minority communities such as inconsistent procedures and practices
in the implementation of minority rights, the confusing division of
powers between institutions and revisionism - especially the 20th
century history- which only contributed to growing tension between
minorities and the majority population.
Jelena Krstić of the Humanitarian Law Centre
pointed out that her organization would insist on Serbia’s improved
attitude towards regional reconciliation and dealing with the past.
She said that even though reconciliation in the region was placed on
Serbia’s priority list during its chairmanship of the OSCE, this
seemed to be on paper only; here seems to be no genuine will to
implement adequate measures in this sense, nor is dealing with the
past included as an issue off the self-evaluation. Reports by
relevant international institutions and organizations speak of
inadequate approach to establishment of proper transitional justice
mechanisms and non-impunity for crimes committed in the past:
prosecution of war crimes, adequate protection of victims, as well
as their families (protection of their right to adequate
reparations), the right to the truth and institutional reforms -
removing every individual who participated in any way in war crimes
from all public services l and security institutions.
Katarina Golubović of the Lawyers’ Committee for
Human Rights, who will be monitoring the freedom of assembly and
elections, noted that many provisions of the Public Assembly Law
were unconstitutional generating only problems as such as confirmed
by the Constitutional Court in 2013. The law is implemented very
selectively – the Ministry of Interior banned rallies by human
rights defenders and opposition parties without any explanation. Two
years had to pass until the Constitutional Court decided on
unconstitutionality of the Law on Public Assembly. The publication
of the decision was postponed for six months in order for Serbia to
finally amend the Public Assembly Law adjusted to the OSCE documents
and the Serbian Constitution.
GALLERY::: |
